Russell Brand Offerring His Services As A Rentaghost

The 70s British children's series Rentaghost sounds like the greatest thing from my childhood that I never knew existed, a show about ghosts who rent themselves out to the living for various tasks. It sounds weird and funny and with tons of potential as a long-running series, the kind of thing I would have been all about as a kid. And while plans to revive the series for television have never materialized, Deadline reports it will be getting the movie treatment instead, with Russell Brand on board to star as ghost leader Fred Mumford.

They're describing it as a "Beetlejuice-style afterlife comedy," and to be honest it's not hard to imagine Brand simply playing Beetlejuice himself, all bug-eyes and stripey clothes. I'd count on this being a little less outright bizarre than Tim Burton's film, but really with Brand on board, you never know. It's unclear how much they're aiming this film toward kids, though given that the actor lent his voice to the forthcoming Easter animated comedy Hop he's clearly not opposed to entertaining shorter audience members-- and maybe scaring them with some ghoulish antics too.